Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

State Lawmakers Mull Ways To Rein In Out-Of-Control Drug Prices

Under one of the measures being considered, pharmaceutical companies would have to explain to the state periodically why they’re raising prices, and they’d have to give 60 days notice to purchasers before raising prices by a certain amount.

KPCC:
Will Transparency In Drug Pricing Force Down Costs?
As the state legislature returned to work in Sacramento Monday, lawmakers were considering a number of bills intended to restrain the rise of health care prices, including one that would require drug makers to notify the public before raising the price of certain medications. ... If the bill passes, next year the state’s insurance regulators will keep an annual list of the 25 mostly costly drugs, the 25 most commonly prescribed drugs, and which 25 drugs’ prices went up the most. (Faust, 8/21)

In other news from Sacramento —

San Francisco Chronicle:
State Bills Seek To Cut Children’s Exposure To Lead
Tests have turned up harmful levels of lead in water fountains and taps at other schools in San Diego and Los Angeles, where the district long ago decided to identify, flush and fix or seal hundreds of contaminated fountains. And in the wake of the much-publicized toxic lead contamination of water in Flint, Mich., a Reuters report revealed dozens of California neighborhoods in which tested children showed elevated levels of lead — a neurotoxin that causes developmental disorders and brain damage. (Aguilera, 8/21)

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